Lumber company will invest in threatened John Day mill

The company that owns the last remaining lumber mill in Grant County, says it intends to invest $2 to $4 million in the facility.

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Posted Sep. 10, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Sep 10, 2013 at 2:50 AM

Posted Sep. 10, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Sep 10, 2013 at 2:50 AM

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The company that owns the last remaining lumber mill in Grant County, says it intends to invest $2 to $4 million in the facility.

The announcement comes now that the U.S. Forest Service has awarded a 10-year stewardship contract for hundreds of thousands of acres of restoration work in the Malheur National Forest.

Just a year ago, the mill's owner, Ochoco Lumber Co. said it would closing its facility in John Day due to lack of supply. But the mill stayed open.

Accelerated federal timber sales helped bridge the gap, while two collaborative groups representing environmental, timber and local interests hammered out a management plan.

CRESWELL — An 8-year-old dispute over skydivers using a busy Lane County airfield is nearing a settlement that includes restrictions aimed at keeping parachutists who have just landed from walking in front of planes on the runway.

It could take more than a year, though, before skydivers resume jumping to a landing zone next to Creswell's city-owned Hobby Field, the Eugene Register-Guard reported.

The airfield is one of Oregon's busiest general aviation airports.

In 2005, pilots were complaining that they'd nearly collided with skydiver planes and that skydivers who'd just landed were crossing the runway in front of aircraft on takeoff runs.

In response, the city considered tougher rules. Regulatory and legal disputes followed, including a complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration that alleged discrimination against skydivers.

PORTLAND — The Oregon National Guard has seen a startling uptick in suicides among its members this year, The Oregonian newspaper reported Monday.

Previously, the Oregon Guard hadn't seen a suicide in two years.

The latest victim was 24-year-old Brady Hammer, who died in Texas on July 28 at an off-post apartment he shared with his girlfriend.

Family members tell The Oregonian that they think he didn't know there was a bullet in the chamber, but they don't know for sure.

A Guard spokesman, Capt. Stephen Bomar, said three cases have been determined to be suicide.

Three environmental groups have asked a federal judge to stop a Coast Range timber sale they believe will harm spotted owl habitat and kill more than a dozen of the threatened birds.

Cascadia Wildlands, Oregon Wild and Umpqua Watersheds filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Eugene against the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs seeking an injunction blocking the sale.

The BIA plans to log more than 500 acres in the Middle Fork Coquille River watershed, an area that is home to both the northern spotted owl and the marbled murrelet, which are both on the endangered species list.

According to the lawsuit, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also raised issues about the sale, recommending that the BIA alter it to reduce logging in spotted owl habitat. The BIA did not follow the recommendation, the suit says.

The lawsuit says the sale will destroy almost 20 percent of the bird's nesting and foraging habitat in the Coquille Forest.

PORTLAND — Portland police say they were helped in their pursuit of a man sought in a bank robbery by people who kept calling 911 with updates as a man waving a gun ran by.

Central Precinct Cmdr. Bob Day told The Oregonian that the man was "running all over the place" Monday in an area of northwest Portland before dashing into the Ecotrust Building. Another clue: the man was reportedly dropping cash as he ran.

Day says the man surrendered when officers caught up to him.

The commander says the money taken from the Wells Fargo bank branch was recovered. Day says the weapon was a handgun replica.